


Heist

by DreamsOfSleep



Series: Heist AU [1]
Category: New Girl
Genre: Anti-Hero, Bank Robbery, Betrayal, Double Cross, F/M, Heist, Moral Dilemmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-15 21:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7238779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamsOfSleep/pseuds/DreamsOfSleep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was just supposed to be a simple bank job. Their last big score before they hung it up forever. But you always pay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Last Big Score

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by She & Him's music video ["Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" ](https://youtu.be/iYvABfWf6cM) with Nick Miller filling in for Joseph Gordon-Levitt's role as the bank robber.

They were sitting outside in their beatup car watching the glass doors of the bank entrance. 

“Just one more time, right, Jamie?” Nick said to his younger brother. He didn’t look directly at his brother, but stared straight ahead out of the car’s windshield. His knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel tightly. He watched the flow of ordinary people, men in business suits and women in neatly pressed dresses, enter and exit the bank. 

“After this we’ll have enough to pay for his operation. We’ll have enough for everything.”

His brother nodded his head grimly. 

Nick’s hands shake slightly. He closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath to calm himself. He exhales and his hands still. Ice water runs through his veins as his mind runs through the familiar routine.

\---

Nick felt bad about scaring all these nice people, but he couldn’t just stand by and let his dad die. He just lost the bar and he couldn’t even afford the rent on his shitty one bedroom apartment, let alone the thousands of dollars for that operation. His brother just had a new baby and lost his job as a security consultant installing security systems for banks. His mother doesn’t have enough saved for retirement and she’ll have to work herself to the bone until the day she dies at her meaningless job that treats her like shit. Nick knows it wasn’t a _good_ choice, but with everything stacked against them, it didn’t feel like such a bad one either.

No one had died at any of these things; they played it smart, conservative. This was the largest bank job they had ever attempted before and Nick was nervous but fairly certain that they had mapped everything out just like they usually did. They wouldn’t have to keep doing small time jobs trying to scramble up the meager funds to get them through to the next month… _too high risk, too little reward._ This bank had enough for them to finally stop doing this. 

\---

They avoided wearing the stereotypical dark ski masks that bank robbers always wore in movies. Too obvious. Any bank teller would see them coming from a mile away and hit the silent alarm before they even reached the counters. Either that or they would be shot on sight by the bank security guard. Instead, they always dressed in dark suits with sunglasses to avoid detection. They just looked like regular bank customers, blending in. He was always the frontman at the counters while his brother came in through the back entrance, disabling security systems and frosting up cameras, disarming any security guards as needed. They made a good team. They both knew their roles so they could work efficiently. Quick in and out. No muss, no fuss. Nick thinks that’s where other bank robbers always messed up. _Split the duties; don’t get greedy; make sure you can trust the guy behind you with your life._ They followed all these rules.

He enters the bank through the glass doors and walks up to the teller. He reaches into his jacket pocket and hands her the folded-up demand note with a canvas bag. It reads: _This is a robbery. Act normal; empty your drawer into the bag. No dye packs, no alarms, no one will get hurt._ She opens the note and reads it. She looks around her nervously, unsure. Nick knows it’s a weird situation to be in; sometimes the tellers need a little motivation. He opens his suit jacket to show her his gun.

She swallows tightly and then unlocks her drawer. She starts putting bundles of banded bills into the canvas bag. When the drawer is empty, she slides the full bag back across the counter to him. When he reaches over to take the bag, their hands touch and there is a moment of electricity between them that makes him look up at her over his sunglasses. He notices that her eyes are startlingly blue.

He hears footsteps behind him on the bank’s tile floor and looks to the side. A security guard is striding purposefully towards him. _Shit! Where’s Jamie?_ He takes out his gun and aims it at the teller’s head. “Drop your weapon!” he shouts to the guard. The guard hesitates and then bends down to slide his gun across the floor to Nick. He picks it up and holsters it. “Everybody down on the ground!” he yells. 

\---

He makes everyone in the bank line up in a neat row against the wall near the vault, lying on their stomachs with their hands on their heads. He makes two of the bank managers open the vault. He instructs them to bag up all the cash inside into canvas bags and place them near the front entrance. Once the vault is emptied, he starts making the bank patrons line up and walk single file into the vault. Nick sees a flash of motion from the corner of his eye. The security guard tackles him from behind. He lets out a yelp as he hits the hard tile floor. His gun falls out of his hand and slides across the floor out of reach. He struggles to get the man off him and reaches for the guard’s gun inside his jacket. He manages to push the man off and then hits him with the butt of the gun, knocking him out. 

He is breathing hard from the exertion when he sees his brother run out from the back of the bank. He runs over towards Nick and the unconscious man. He stops in front of the man and then shoots him at point blank range in the back of the head. Nick flinches back looking at the blood leaking over the tile floor; he starts hyperventilating. The bank patrons scream. The bank managers already in the vault quickly pull the heavy steel doors shut and seal themselves inside.

“No one else wants to be a hero, right?” Jamie said to the few remaining bank patrons lined up against the wall. They remained obediently on their stomachs with their hands on their heads.

Nick shoves his brother back angrily. “Why did you do that?! He was down already! You could have just tied him up like at the other banks! We said we weren’t going to hurt anybody!”

“He was going to come after us one way or another,” Jamie says calmly, unmoved by the carnage before him. He pauses and looks Nick directly in the eyes. Jamie’s eyes are flat and emotionless. “Do you think we made it out of all of those other banks because I ‘tied them up’?”

Nick feels like he’s just been sucker-punched. “What?” he chokes out. 

“All those other guards…I took them out back and I shot them. I only said I tied them up so that you didn’t have to think about it.”

“You lied to me,” Nick said reproachfully. His tone is full of anger and hurt at his brother’s betrayal.

“You wanted to believe it…” Jamie shrugs. 

Nick strides over and picks up his original gun off the tile floor. He spins open the chamber and walks back over to shove it into his brother’s chest. _No bullets._

“You were unloaded this whole time?” his brother says in disbelief. “What would have happened if you got in trouble?”

Nick shrugged. “I would have let them shoot me so you could get away.” 

Nick looks down at the man with his brains leaking across the tile floor. He takes off his suit jacket and covers him up. _He probably had a family._

“Come on, Nick…I couldn’t figure out how to disable the silent alarm; they must have installed a new system a few weeks back. We have to go before the real cops show up,” Jamie says. 

Nick sits down cross-legged on the bank floor with his gun hanging limply in his hand. “Let them come,” he says in a detached voice.

“I can’t leave you here, Nick. You’re my brother.”

Nick looks off into the middle distance. “I won’t snitch if that’s what you’re worried about. I’ll tell them that I did it, that I shot them all. I might as well have. You’re right that I wanted to believe it. I knew the risks going into this; I just thought we planned for them. That we could save Dad this way because I wanted to believe it so badly. And I wanted to help you and Deann and the baby and help Ma not lose the house. I thought nobody was going to get hurt. If I knew that we had killed that guard at that first bank, I would have turned myself in.” 

Jamie starts to panic. “We have to go, Nick…” 

Nick remained unmoving, staring blankly into the middle distance.

Jamie grabs the teller by the arm off the floor and wraps his arm around her waist, holding her securely so she couldn’t get away. He holds his gun to the side of her temple. She closes her eyes and lets out a small whimper of fear. “Come on, Nick. Come with me or she gets it.”

“Leave her alone, man,” Nick said in an irritated tone. “It’s over.”

Jamie clicks the safety off his gun. “I’m serious, Nick. You either come with me or she gets a bullet to the head right here. Your choice.”

Jamie sees a look of pure hate in Nick’s eyes before it gets shoved away and he’s his brother again.

Nick gets up off the floor and holsters his gun. 

“Let’s go,” he says in a flat voice. 

“I’ll drive,” Jamie said. “I know a place.”


	2. Sins of the Father

Before they leave, they tie up the remaining bank patrons outside the vault.

Jamie makes Nick tie up the teller to go with them. “Collateral in case we need to negotiate with the police,” Jamie says. He looks over at Nick. “Also to make sure you don’t do something stupid like get yourself killed or turn yourself in. We’re in too deep, Nick. All in, remember? I have your back and you need to have mine. We live together, we die together; there are no other options.” 

Jamie leaves to pull the car around. 

He’s standing next to the teller near the bags of cash at the front glass doors. “I’m sorry I got you mixed up in this,” he whispers to her apologetically. “I’m going to try and get you out.” 

\---

Jamie puts a blindfold on the teller and makes her sit inside the car as they load up the bags of cash. 

He makes Nick sit in back with her. 

They drive down a convoluted series of turns and side streets until they reach a warehouse on the edge of the city. 

“We’re here,” Jamie says, looking in the rearview mirror at them.

Nick helps the teller get out of the car and go inside the building while Jamie goes to park the car in a hidden garage. 

\---

Once Jamie returns and the three of them are all inside the front of the warehouse, Jamie says, “We’re meeting somebody here. He’s upstairs in the business office. You should go on up; knock twice so he knows it’s you. I’ll stay here with the girl.”

The hairs on the back of Nick’s neck stand on end. This has always been a two-person operation. “Who?” he asks in confusion.

“You’ll see,” Jamie says mysteriously.

Nick glances down at the gun in his brother’s hand and Jamie sees him look. “I didn’t bring you out here to kill you, Nick.” That doesn’t make Nick feel better though; something still feels off.

“You’re not going to do anything to her while I’m up there, are you?” Nick says worriedly.

“Nah. Scout’s honor. Better get a move on.” Jamie gestures to the stairs.

\---

Nick ascends the stairs slowly with trepidation. He knocks twice on the door like Jamie said and then opens it.

The man’s back is to him, but when he turns around, Nick recognizes him instantly.

“Hey, Nicky,” his dad says. 

“Dad…?” Nick says in disbelief. “What are you doing out of the hospital?”

His dad looks sheepish. “I was never sick, Nicky. I just had to say that to get you on board with the plan.”

Nick’s anger burns hot. “You’re such a fucking asshole! What kind of dad pretends that he’s dying in the hospital to his own son? You let me trust you again! This is just like when I was five and you had me steal from all those nice families.”

“I’m real sorry about that, Nicky, but this was the only way to save the family. The money is for us to run away to Mexico to start over. You can have your own bar again. Deann can have everything for her new baby. Your mother never has to worry about money again. We're all set for life.”

“We could have figured something else out,” Nick insists. 

Walt gives him a rueful smile. _His poor, idealistic son._ “Your bar went under. Your brother lost his job. I was in too much debt, looking at jail time for all those scams I pulled in the ‘80s. The government was coming after your mother, us, the family either way. We would have had nothing.”

“All those guards…they had families too.” 

"If it’s us against them, I’ll choose us every time, Nicky,” his father says grimly.

“It’s wrong, Dad…we murdered them.”

“You didn’t murder anybody, Nicky…you were saving the family.” His dad hugs Nick to him while Nick’s arms hang stiffly at his sides and he doesn’t hug him back. 

“We murdered them,” Nick repeats in a flat voice.

Walt ignores that and says, “Your brother told me what happened. I’m real sorry that Jamie was such a loose cannon today, but you two still pulled it off. We can still get out of here, Nicky. We have to lose the girl, though.”

“We can just leave her here,” Nick says. “She doesn’t know where we’re going.” 

“You know we can’t do that, Nicky. She knows your faces. No witnesses. You want me to do it?” 

“No,” Nick says, “I’ll do it.” 


	3. The Man He Could Have Been

Nick has the gun shoved into the teller’s back as he pushes her into the back alley behind the warehouse. Her blindfold is still on and he is telling her where to walk. He is using a menacing voice, but it doesn’t sound like he uses it often. She thinks she hears an undercurrent of anxiety to it.

For some reason, she feels calm. Nick doesn’t make her feel scared like his brother Jamie, even though she knows that is a dumb thought since they are both hardened criminals after all. Jamie didn’t do a very good job putting on the blindfold so she can still see part of the ground as they walk. The gray concrete of the warehouse becomes the sparse grass of the alley. She thinks she’s probably going to die in the next few minutes. She always thought that her life would flash before her eyes at a time like this, but she just keeps thinking about how she was actually a bit bored at work before Nick showed up. She felt like she had met him before when Nick touched her hand at the counter, but she just moved to LA a week ago from Portland so that doesn’t really make sense.

Outside in the alley, Nick touches her shoulder to make her stop walking forward. She closes her eyes and braces for the impact of the gunshot but it doesn’t come. Instead, she feels Nick start to untie her hands to free her. He takes off her blindfold.

“Run,” he says.

“What about you?” she asks. “They’ll kill you.”

“I deserve it,” he says matter-of-factly. “We killed all those people.”

She wishes she had met him under different circumstances. Something compels her to press her lips to his mouth. He lets her. His hands go up to cup her face. He gets an image of her as his wife in another lifetime.

When she pulls back, he looks deeply into her eyes. He’s trying to memorize her face. “Tell me your name,” he whispers.

“It’s Jess,” she whispers back.

She starts walking away from him but turns back to look at him. She wants to tell him something but she doesn’t know what.

Nick notices the small red pinpoint of light on her. He runs towards her and pushes her out of the way. He gets hit right in the solar plexus by the sniper. 

Jess is screaming and holding him against her getting his blood all over herself. 

The last thing he thinks before he blacks out is that he is glad he got to do one good thing in his life after doing a whole lot of bad things. 

It’s not such a bad way to die. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for pulling a reverse-Pepperwood at the end there. This version of Nick is who Pepperwood would have been if he made a series of increasingly bad decisions, but in the end he still saves Jess because he does that in every universe.


	4. Epilogue: Retribution

The SWAT team swarms in and raids the warehouse. His brother and father get in a shootout with the cops and they both die, so Nick’s the “lucky” one if you can call it that. He didn’t die at least; the bullet passed right through him. It looked a lot worse than it was…a lot of blood, but it was a clean shot and it didn’t hit any of his major organs or arteries. 

\---

Nick gets 40 years in prison for armed robbery, with the possibility of parole in 20 years for good behavior. He has to learn to live with his mistakes. He has to repent for his sins and the sins of his father and his brother and his family. He’s trying to figure out a way to make it up to all those families that were torn apart for something he did. He’s learning to build things with his hands, learning to “fancy-fix” broken things so they work like new. He’s trying to rebuild his life and make it up to all those people whose lives he destroyed. He knows he can never really make it up to them, but he has to try.

He thinks prison isn’t so bad because Jess still visits him. She still waits for him out there so he knows there are good things out in the world, still. He looks forward to visitation days because she always brings him something to remind him of what the world is still like out there, a good world, and the man he could have been if he didn’t make a series of increasingly bad decisions. He’s still trying to figure out who he is going to be afterwards when he gets out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There actually is no more "parole" in the federal system, but "supervised release." "Parole" is what you get in the state system, but for the lay person I think "parole" is what most people think of when they hear about someone who gets out of prison for good behavior so I'll keep that in there. Apologies for any misuse of terminology.


End file.
